This started out as a wee little project. I had this cute little slip-in 4x6 album with just the right color scheme (It is from a company called International Arrivals). I thought I would just pick out a few of my favorite pics...maybe put some text on some of them with photoshop...print the pics out and slide them in. Then I remembered some digital kits on my hard drive and some products I had on my shelves, and all of a sudden this little project was not quite so simple. But it will be for you, because I’m going to write out all the steps that I took right here. You can modify them for a end-of-summer or end-of-sport season album that fits your needs.

An album like this is a great and easy way to start experimenting with digital elements on a small scale. I’m not ready to do all digital pages, but I’m really liking the look of mixing both digital and paper elements together. And 4x6 prints - either done at home or at a developer, are very budget-friendly.

I used Photoshop 7, but these steps should work in any version of Photoshop, including Photoshop Elements.

Materials needed
4x6 slip in album
Digital Kits (I used Split Pea, What’s Your Point?, Round & Round, Basic Accents, Juicy & 2 Seas - see the links down below)
Fabric Tape (I used Imagination Project and one Heidi Swapp tape that I got from Target)
Ribbon (I have no idea where I got the blue ribbon I used!)
Puffy Accent Pieces (I used MOD pillow chips)
Rub-ons (American Crafts, MOD, & Doodlebug)
Letter Stickers (Doodlebug & SEI)
Tab Stickers (SEI)
Plastic Clips (MOD)
Slick Writer

Album Cover

Front Cover
1. Wrap fabric tapes around cover, beginning a little down from the top inside cover. Apply word tape (Heidi Swapp) to cover as well
2. Glue ribbon next to tapes. Reserve a piece of ribbon to attach to the inside and then tie a tag too (I used a pillow chip and I waited until I was finished with the album to attach it so that it wouldn’t be in the way)
3. Use rub-ons to put the title in the lower right hand corner.
Note: This album had a canvas-y texture and I had some difficulty getting the rub-ons to adhere. I was pleasantly surprised at how well the cotton art tape stuck. Keep in mind the surface of the album when planning what to use.

Inside Cover
1. I lined up all the tapes so that the edges were even. In the remaining space, I put a tag with my dedication on it. This was a MOD pillow chips, but I actually “de-pillowed” it by removing the backing so that it would lie (relatively) flat.
2. Tie ribbon to hole in tag, glue so that it lies flat while extending onto the front cover for the other accent.

Album Contents

Note : I did all of my digital work on all the photos, then printed them all out. Then I added the physical accents. I am going to write the directions page by page from start to finish. Do it how ever works best for you.

I also make the assumption that all of the digital photos you are working on are sized at 4x6, 300 dpi to start. I also talk about printing the photos, but you could alternately have them printed by your digital photo processor.

Page 1
1. Open photo in photoshop. Open Rhonna Farrer’s Split Pea Kit and open the “Split Border” .png file. Resize it (Image -> Image Size) to fit across the bottom of your photo.
2. Use the Move tool to drag the file onto your photo.
3. Open the “Round and Round” Brushes set. When you use these brushes, you have two choices: you can install the brushes and use them that way (see Rhonna’s tutorial ) or you can just use the .png files by resizing, recoloring, and dragging them onto your photo. That is what I did.
4. Open the circle .png you want to use. Resize it to fit (Image -> Resize). Recolor it using the Cover Overlay Method (described in Rhonna’s tutorial here ). Drag onto your photo using the Move tool.
5. Repeat for other circles.
5. Print Photo.
6. Put letter stickers for year into one of the circles at the top of the page. Outline with Slick Writer.

Page 2
1. Open Team Photo
2. Open “Doodle block frame” from Tia Bennet’s “Juicy” Kit. Recolor to match the photo.
3. Drag frame onto photo. Resize using “Free Transform” (Edit -> Free Transform) to fit the photo.
4. Print

Page 3
1. Print team results at the bottom of the page, using text tool. I actually cut and pasted this information from the web, into a word processing document, formatted it there, and then cut and pasted it onto the photo in photoshop.
2. Open Jen Lessinger’s “What’s Your Point” digi kit and choose an arrow. Resize and make the image white using the Cover Overlay method.
3. Drag arrow onto photo.
4. Print Photo
5. Use rub-on for number symbol and letter sticker.

Pages 4 & 5
1. Open photo with ample “white space” for text.
2. Put individual results directly on the picture using the text tool. I formatted the information in my word processing program and then cut and pasted into photoshop, adjusting the font size as needed.
3. Print photo.
4. Use letter stickers to label the results.
5. Affix tab sticker to the top of the photo and label. Label reverse side for previous page as well.
6. Repeat for next page.

Page 6 & 7
1. Open 2 photos. Use text tool to label the upper left corner of the left side photo.
2. Open Tia Bennett’s “2Seas” kit. Open “pennantline2.png” Resize image and drag onto both photos. Have the photos open side by side at the same size so that you can see that the pennant lines up across the photos.
3. Print photos.
4. Use letter stickers to label along the bottom. Use Slick Writer to write commentary on photo.

Page 8 & 9
1. Open landscape oriented photo. Resize to 8” wide (Image->Resize). Make sure the the box next to “Constrain Proportions” is checked and the photo height will adjust itself accordingly.
2. Use text tool to label photo in lower left.
3. Open “Split Pea” kit paper, “fun.png” Resize to 8” wide by 6” high, 300 dpi using the crop tool.
4. Drag photo onto paper page.
5. Open Split Pea kit paper “striped fun.png”. Crop a strip from the paper, about .5” x 8”. Drag onto page.
6. Print photo.
7. Trim into 2 4x6 photos. Journal with Slick Writer and apply title with rubons (Doodlebug).

Page 10
1. Open photo in photoshop. Open Split Pea Kit “Split Border” .png file. Resize it (Image -> Image Size) to fit across the top of your photo.
2. Use the Move tool to drag the file onto your photo.
3. Print photo.
4. Use letter stickers (SEI) for title and journal with black pen.

Page 11
1. Open Split Pea kit, “coolspot.png” paper. Resize to 4x6 using the crop tool.
2. Open photo. Resize to 4” wide (Image -> Resize). Drag onto background paper.
3. Print
4. Use letter stickers for title (SEI) and journal with Slick Writer.

Pages 12 & 13
1. Open photos and label with names using text tool.
2. From the Split Pea kit, open the “polaroid3.png”.
3. Drag onto photo. Resize using “Free Transform” (Edit -> Free Transform.)
4. Print photos.
5. Journal on photo with Slick Writer.
6. Apply tab to top of right hand photo and label.

Pages 14 & 15
1. Open “Split Pea” circle brushes. Choose three to open and recolor using the Color Overlay method.
2. Open photo.
3. Resize circle images and drag them onto the photo.
4. Print photo and additional photo for right side of spread.
5. Use letter stickers for title (Doodlebug). Spread over both photos.

Pages 16 &17
1. Open two landscape oriented photos. Journal on left hand photo using text tool.
2. Journal on right hand photo using text tool.
3. Open Kate Teagues Basic Accents “roundedcirc.png” Recolor, resize, and drag onto right hand side photo.
4. Print photos.
5. Use letter stickers (Doodlebug) inside the digital frame for the title. Outline with slick writer.

Pages 18 &19
1. Open left hand photo. Increase canvas size to 8”wide by 6”high, with the current image on the far left of the canvas.
2. Open second image. Drag onto first image’s canvas.
3. Open Split Pea kit accent “funkysplitborder.png.” Resize to 8” wide. Drag onto photo.
4. Print photo.
5. Trim photo into 2 4x6 images. Use letter stickers (SEI) for the title.

Page 20
1. Open photo. Open Split Pea kit accent “fun overlay.png.”
2. Drag overlay onto photo. Repeat directly underneath first image until you have a border extending from the top of the photo to the bottom.
3. Print.

Finishing the album

1. Slide all of the completed photos into the page protectors.
2. Embellish with plastic clips. I slid them over the background of the actual album pages, between the photos, rather than over the photos themselves.
3. Add hanging accent to the front of the album.